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The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century (the early Classical period ).
Sonata form is one of the most influential ideas in the history of Western classical music.Since the establishment of the practice by composers like C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert and the codification of this practice into teaching and theory, the practice of writing works in sonata form has changed considerably.
In music, a sonata (/ s ə ˈ n ɑː t ə /; pl. sonate) [a] literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian cantare, "to sing"), a piece sung. [1]: 17 The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance.
Sonata – Composition for one or more instruments, typically in three or four movements. Flute sonata – Sonata specifically composed for the flute. Sonatina – Short sonata, often simpler in structure and melody, used as a teaching tool or for less formal occasions. Trio sonata – Form of sonata for two melodic instruments and basso continuo.
In the field of music theory, the term Sonata Cycle refers to the layout of a multi-movement work where the movements are recognizably in the forms of the tradition of classical music. It differs from the term cyclic form in that there is no unifying motive or theme used in all the movements. The standard sonata cycle has four movements, broken ...
Sonata Theory understands the rhetorical layout of a sonata as progressing through a set of action spaces and moments of "structural punctuation." [8] These action spaces largely correlate with the "themes" or "groups" of the sonata, though each space is differentiated primarily by the unique generic goal that the music pursues within that particular space.
Occasionally the development is omitted and replaced with a simple transition, leaving the exposition and recapitulation: this is sometimes referred to as sonatina form, or a Type I sonata in sonata theory. One example of the piece in sonata form without development is the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17, "The Tempest". Some ...
The term is most widely used [4] as an analytical convenience to denote a portion of a movement identified as an example of classical tonal sonata form. The exposition typically establishes the music's tonic key, and then modulates to, and ends in, the dominant. [5] If the exposition starts in a minor key, it typically modulates to the relative ...